Fine
by Tadpole24
Summary: The hospital scene we shouldn't have been robbed of. Booth/Bones, as always. :


Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them, wish I did though…does that count??

I realize it's a little late, but I'm from Australia and well we're lazy people down here. So really, it's not late. :)

Hope you enjoy.

Em

-xox-

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Her breathing matched that of her sleeping partners.

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Out

And all she could think was that he was fine.

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Out

His breath slightly misting over the oxygen tube hanging loosely around his nose and travelling past his mouth.

_He's ok. He's fine. He made it._

The mantra continued steadily in her head as his breathing continued steadily.

Everyone told her she should go home; the nurses, the doctors, even her team. They told her to go home, wash up and come back fresh in the morning.

"No," had been her simple answer, "No, not yet."

Even Parker, who had been sitting with her the entire time they had been operating on Booth, had gone home after much debate with Rebecca. Temperance couldn't help but smile at the intense stubbornness that had obviously come from the five year olds father.

When Angela had come to say goodbye she left a bucket of warm water and some wash cloths along with some words of understanding in her wake, "When Kirk died, you wouldn't let me leave until I was ready, so you stay here until you're ready."

Temperance promised herself that she would make it up to her best friend for being the only person not trying to force her into going home.

After they had all gone, she set to work on cleaning the caked blood from her hands. Tears stung her eyes as she recalled the intense pain that had struck her as she applied pressure to Booth's wound.

_Come on Booth! No! Come on!_

She tried, to no avail, to clean the ruby red blood off her emerald green top. The contrast in colour a sharp and painful reminder of the fear she had felt as she hugged her dying partner to her chest.

_You're gonna make this Booth! You're gonna make this._

In the end she just pulled the t-shirt over her head and sat in silence in just the black top she had worn underneath.

The distance from her seat to the bed seemed all too far at that moment and the anthropologist found herself moving across to her FBI partners bed where she gently grasped his hand.

The same hand that had held hers as she offered encouragement

_It's ok, I'm here. I'm right here Booth_

They say that before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes; Temperance didn't know what Booth had seen as he lay on the Checker Box floor, but she knew that she had seen a portion of her life flash before her eyes.

The portion with Booth in it.

Everything they had shared in the past few years of working together.

The moments of heated discussion over drinks at Wong Fu's, the moments of eating pie at the diner, the moments when they weren't the best of friends, and the moments when they were.

Jasper, Brainy Smurf and Mac and Cheese all make appearances, and even a special mistletoe kiss that was nothing like kissing her brother.

Everything.

"I'm so sorry Booth. If I hadn't of been so patronizing to Sweets maybe we could have known how dangerous Pam was."

She looked at his face, hoping to find some sign of consciousness, even though she knew she'd find none. He had woken up earlier in the evening, but the anesthetic was still strong in his system and it would be a few more hours before he'd slept it off in part. So she pulled up another seat near the bed and rested her head against the side of the bed.

She knew this is what the others had been trying to avoid when they told her she should go home, but she couldn't bare the thought of Booth waking up alone.

Her efforts paid off at around five in the morning when a slight pressure on her hand caused her to wake up. She turned her head and looked up the bed to see Booth who was looking at her with a sleepy smile on his face.

"Hey you."

She smiled back, allowing Booth to pick up her hand and draw it to his mouth, planting a soft kiss against it. She was surprised how easy the transition was, she knew she had wanted to stay to tell Booth her feelings and she knew he had them too. They both knew they were just dancing around the topic and it'd only be a matter of time. But they each saw the others feelings at the Checker Box and both knew it would be an issue addressed the second it could.

"Bones, I…"

"Don't." She realized how harsh it must have sounded and softened her voice, "I know what you want to say, I've been thinking about it all night. But not here, it's too…"

Booth smiled, "Cliché?"

"Yeah, that." She closed her hand tighter around Booth's, "We both know what we feel, perhaps we could just wait until you're out of the hospital to say it."

"I would like nothing more."

-xox-

When Angela arrived at the hospital the next morning she couldn't have been greeted with a more perfect sight.

Booth and Brennan lying together on the single hospital bed. The nurse stood beside her, "I know he shouldn't really be sharing a bed, but they were just too precious to wake up."

"It's OK, I've been trying to get them together for years," Angela smiled and handed the flowers she had brought to the nurse, "These are from the Jeffersonian Institute, I might just leave them with you."

"Of course," the young nurse smiled, "I wouldn't want to be the one to wake them either."

With a final look, Angela then turned and left the hospital, the happy couple still wrapped in their sleepy embrace and both fine, their breathing completely in sync.

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-xox-

End


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